Meet Flash - the world's cutest sloth
Let me tell you a little bit about my buddy Flash and how I got to hold her.
No - I wasn't at a zoo.
No - I did not have to pay.
She is a living, breathing, sloth who was rescued in the jungle.
Where: Bocas Del Toro, Panama
When: December 2016
Who: Flash!
Flash is a juvenile three-toed pygmy sloth and is native to the islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama. Unlike many pygmy sloths who are found happily curled up in the fork of a tree or hanging around and sleeping, she was discovered laying on the ground under a big tree. There are only a few reasons for sloths to be on the forest floor:
- To use the bathroom
Their diet consists of eating super tough leaves which takes around a month to digest in their four part stomach. This type of sloth climbs all the way down the tree to urinate and defecate roughly once every 3 weeks!
- To find a mate in another tree.
- Food, food and more food.
A sloth is at its most vulnerable while on the ground. Their long claws and weak back legs make it very difficult for them to move.
Although we are not 100% sure what happened, it is believed that she fell from a tree. The fall caused head damage and the people taking care of Flash believe she is blind as a result of it.
The island animal doctor had too many animals she was taking care of and couldn't afford to take Flash in. So, the family who lived in the house below the one my family and I stayed in decided to take care of her . They built a tree enclosure for Flash where she is safe from predators and has a few comfy branches to sleep on!
Everyone knows how slow sloths move, but seeing it in person is unreal. Flash was soooo cute! She even enjoyed wrapping her 3 long claws around my finger as if she were holding my hand.
Other interesting things about Flash:
- Hibiscus flowers are the equivalent to Sloth Candy
If you have never seen a baby sloth eat a hibiscus flower... you need to look that up right now. Literally.
- Because of pygmy sloths facial construction and coloring, they look like they are smiling!
- Flash was recently given a bath in the picture above - usually sloths are covered in algae and moss. This helps them camouflage and avoid predators.
